


To the Stars

by opalmatrix



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gift Giving, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 04:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10153574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: In which Csethiro presents Maia with something he didn't know he wanted.  Beta by the indispensablewhymzycal.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zdenka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/gifts).



Barely five weeks before the marriage of Edrehasivar VII and Dach'osmin Csethiro Ceredin, a flurry of activity took place in a seldom-used corner of the Alcethmeret.

"How much longer have we?" asked Csethiro. She was fitting candles into slim silver holders.

Merrem Esaran smiled. "Never fear, dach'osmin. Young Dosevet will let us know when the emperor approaches. Before we left the room, the sweets had just been served." The steward took the candlesticks from her as they were filled and placed one precisely in the center of each of the windows. 

Footsteps sounded in the hall outside, but it was just Cala Athmaza with Mer Shelenar, Maia's new chaplain. Both of them had their hands full of books. Mer Shelenar, a goblin-dark young man with gentle green eyes, began to arrange his volumes in the small bookcase by the door. Cala put most of his on top of the same case, but he put the largest of them on a reading stand with its own little lamp. "Look, dach'osmin," he said. "Isn't it beautiful?"

He opened the volume and turned the pages to show the hand-illuminated capitals, borders, and headings, as bright and crisp as the day they had been painted more than three centuries ago. "The Daybook of Osmin Telistho Esverin," Csethiro mumured. "It is as wonderful as the Athmaza said. How sad that it was hidden away for so long."

"No longer," said Cala, pleased. He gently laid one of the ribbon markers to hold the place of the devotions of the day and closed the book. The lamplight played gently on the rich leather of the hand-tooled cover.

Just then, they heard footsteps running in the hallway. "He's coming, they're coming!" said Dosevet as he burst through the doorway.

"Hush, lad. You are a page of the Alcethmeret, not a town urchin," said Merrem Esaran. "Go wait by the door, _quietly_."

Mer Aisava led the way, with Maia and his second nohecharei close behind him. "We didn't even know this room was here," Maia was saying as he approached the doorway.

They had moved to the sides of the door so he could see it all at once: the seven windows for the points of the compass, with the door making the eighth; the small altar before the west window; the single seat facing it, with a hassock should he wish to kneel instead; the deep blue rug, worked in a pattern of garlands and stars; the open, carved box filled with fine beeswax tapers on the quaint little table by the door; the two standing lamps with their cunning shutters; the bookcase with its prayer books and hymnals; the illuminated day book on its stand; the little tiled stove; and above all of it, the high dome of the ceiling painted midnight blue sprinkled with glittering stars.

"What is this?" whispered Maia. "It is beautiful."

"Serenity, it is your own chapel, here within the gates of the Alcethmeret," said Mer Shelenar, in his deep, soft voice. "The dach'osmin your fiancee mentioned that it is difficult for you to find the time to make your way to the Mich'othasmeire to meditate as often as you would like, and I suggested a private place here within your own rooms. Merrem Esaran proposed that we use this space."

"It was a private chapel in the days of Lilesno Drazharan, although subsequent zhasanan have used it as a parlor," Merrem Esaran explained. "We have kept the furnishings simple, so that you might have scope to add to them of your own choice later on."

"A chapel to Cstheio Caireizhasan," said Maia, his heart in his voice. "Dach'osmin Ceredin, we did not know we wanted such a thing, and yet now that we have seen it, it is exactly what we wanted. Thank you. We thank _all_ of you, for we see that you all had your hands in it."

"Then, Serenity, let us light the candles, and we will celebrate Evensong here, together," said Mer Shelenar. "Afterward, we will leave your to your meditation."

And Csethiro, watching, thought that perhaps her fiance might actually sleep well that night, at last.

* * *

_The image is pretty clearly from a medieval European illuminated manuscript; however, I found it on[a Pinterest board](https://www.pinterest.com/nej1945/medieval-manuscripts/) and the board creator credits a Twitter account as the source. The image has been edited slightly._


End file.
